


Don’t Go

by Whookami



Category: South Park
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Body Horror, K2 - Freeform, Lovecraftian, M/M, Romance, cosmic horror, kids fooling around
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-16
Updated: 2018-05-29
Packaged: 2019-04-23 22:51:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14342652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whookami/pseuds/Whookami
Summary: Kyle and Kenny have been fooling around together for years, uncertain what to call their strange relationship, and even more afraid to address it out loud. Things can’t remain the same forever though, and a series of strange events threatens to end their time together before it’s ever really had a chance to flourish. How can you cope with a romantic relationship when your very reality is beginning to unravel?





	1. The First Time

**Author's Note:**

> So, I think about Kenny McCormick a lot. I love stories that attempt to theorize about or address just what it is that makes him so unique. Not enough stories really go into the Lovecraftian origins that Matt and Trey seem to have in store for Ken, so this is my take on that, just with a frame work of K2 thrown in. K2 is my favourite ship in all of SP, and I really think the two of them balance each other out well. I hope you enjoy!

It was a wet warm summer the first time it happened. 

Clothing stuck to their sweaty bodies as Kenny's skilled hands traced along the soft lines of Kyle's chest. Ocean eyes watched with a reverential intensity as the redhead shifted in a warring mix of embarrassment and desire. He could no longer recall exactly when he and the blond had begun adventuring with each other, small hands becoming familiar with the contours and curves of growing bodies. Kenny's fingers were equal parts skilled and measured, always able to find new ways to make the Jewish boy gasp and writhe with previously unknown pleasures. With a sly grin Kenny dipped his head down to lap his tongue across the prominent rise of Kyle's collar bone, tasting the heady concoction of bitter summer sweat and the salt of the smaller boy's pale flesh. Kyle's hands wove through damp blond locks, digits tangling and tugging, urging his companion down towards where all the warmth and emotion collected inside him with electric intensity. 

Kenny huffed a laugh against his friend's skin before allowing himself to be pushed past his abdomen, licking a wide wet strip as he glided downwards. He bit playfully into the slight pudge of skin, the last remnant of baby fat, that crested just above the waistband of the redhead's jeans. A breathy moan escaped swollen lips, a sure sign Kenny was doing a fine job winding the smaller boy up. He lifted his head momentarily to look up for confirmation from behind the shaggy curtain of his bangs. He read only a tinge of self consciousness in those deep emerald pools, Kyle's shame at hearing his own wanton cries just another familiar part of their routine by this point. Despite the embarrassment, Kenny saw no hints that he shouldn't continue, and gave the other boy an excited grin. Kyle chuckled back in spite of himself, always disarmed by the way his friend's eyes lit up warmly when things got touchy-feely between them. Kenny had been precocious from an unusually young age, and although he'd encouraged Kyle to let him explore his body, the blond had never pushed the matter. He'd contentedly waited until the redhead was as ready as himself before teaching him everything he could about how to elicit pleasure from even the simplest of touches. It had been well over a year now of this game, of touching and teasing, of pushing their limits with each other. Neither knew what to call their strange arrangement, they never spoke of it directly. It was a secret held carefully between them, kept in silence or else the spell that bound them together might be broken. They couldn't admit it out loud, but neither wanted that to happen. Now as Kenny's hands deftly undid the fly of Kyle's pants, the redhead felt a blend of fear and trust. He worried that after the blond had wrung every possible moan and shudder from his willing body that he would tire of him and move on to something green and new. He trusted that Kenny was better than that, better than even the boy believed himself to be. For all of Kenny's failings, he was loyal beyond the point when a person had any right to still expect it of the blond. The fact he still hung out with Cartman after all the shit he'd pulled confirmed that the poor boy wasn't one to abandon his bonds lightly. Kyle couldn't help but admire that level of devotion, even if Cartman hadn't done a thing to deserve a friend like Kenny.

The sensation of the humid air hitting the bare skin of his thighs brought Kyle's mind back to the present, mouth opening in an 'oh' of surprise. Kenny had managed to shimmy his pants down his hips to his knees despite the way the fabric clung stickily to his body. The blond's expression was uncharacteristically tender, reverential, as his eyes trailed along the rising tent of Kyle's boxers. He breathed out, long and steady, thin chest noticibly deflating. The smallest curve tugged at the corners of his lips as he willed his hands to steady and pull back the last damnable barrier of cloth. 

His hand paused in midair, fingers curling suddenly into a shakey fist. Kyle's brow furrowed in confusion as all forward progress from his friend ceased. He was about to bite out a sharp remark to tell the blond that stopping now was a real dick move, when he caught the change in Kenny's face. His cerulean eyes were blown wide open, orbs practically trembling in their sockets. His jaw was a taunt ridged line, teeth obviously clenched right behind his thin lips. 

All thoughts towards himself and his own discomfort fled Kyle's mind in an instant as Kenny crumpled over top of him. His hands clenched over his ears, nails digging furrows so deep that thin lines of crimson began to seep through his flaxen locks. Kyle's panicked eyes darted everywhere, trying to take in every available scrap of information he could. 

"Kenny?" He breathed nervously, gently pulling himself out from between his friend's knees. His hand reached towards the other boy hesitantly, unwilling to do nothing, but uncertain what actions might not make the situation even worse. Kenny didn't react or move as Kyle's hand descended onto his shoulder blade, rubbing small circles over top of his thin t-shirt. A snarling noise came from deep within the huddled boy's figure, and Kyle felt _something_ rise up and meet his palm, something from the other boy's skin somehow reaching towards him and making solid contact. The redhead yelped and pulled his arm back, the unmistakable feeling of millions of maggots squirming over his skin assaulting his senses. Confused eyes studied his limb, finding nothing but a thin expanse of pale peach flesh and fine reddish brown hairs, even as he could still feel the memory of the gelatinous insects writhing. He was trembling almost as badly as Kenny now he realized as he stared dazedly at his unblemished arm, his entire body quivering in the grip of terror. Screwing up every last ounce of courage in his soul, while any still remained, Kyle lunged forward and wrapped his arms as tightly around his companion as he could, burying his face against the blond's neck. Kenny's pulse thrummed erratically against Kyle's cheek, like it could escape the transfixed body it was held prisoner inside. Hands curling in his fear and desperation, the redhead could feel his nails cut the other boy's tan flesh, could feel the warm trickles of blood begin to slowly wend their way over the angular lines of his thin frame on their path toward the ground. 

"Kenny, I'm scared," the young man choked out, surprised by how weak and helpless his voice sounded in the quiet of the forest clearing. It was only then he noticed that all noise had stopped, save the almost inhuman mewling cries coming from the boy's hunched form, and Kyle's own ragged breath as he struggled to speak. No animals chittered within the protection of the trees, no birds filled the clear mountain air with their song. Not even a single insect buzzed in the muggy summer afternoon. The two boys might as well be cut off entirely from the universe, the only two living things left in all creation. Kyle's overworked mind struggled away from the concept in terror, unable to accept this for truth, but the fear blossoming in the pit of his being irrationally winning the war against reason. He knew he couldn't face it alone, he knew that only the boy cowering on the ground before him could make it alright, could get them both out of whatever mess they had somehow stumbled into. His hands gripping even tighter, Kyle began to sob into his friend's ear, words coming fast and unbidden, a repeated echo from a time so long ago Kyle had nearly forgotten. 

"Please don't go!" He begged shamelessly, lips pressing against the crook of Kenny's neck, tracing up to the corner of his jaw. "Don't leave me, Kenny. I need you! Kenny!"

For a moment everything stopped. Not just the sounds, like before, but everything. Time itself took a single second to gather itself together before wrenching back into place. Kenny fell forward in Kyle's grasp heavily, and the redhead was glad they were already so close to the earth, or else the blond would probably have face planted into the rough ground beneath them. His breath was shaky, slim shoulders rising and falling in an uneven rhythm for a few moments before he managed to pull himself upright, using Kyle's body for leverage. 

His eyes were dim, cloudy with confusion, and to Kyle's horror, lust. "Why did you make me stop?" Was the question that came from chapped pink lips, the hurt he was feeling evident, even though he was trying to keep it from his voice. 

Emerald eyes stared in shock, arms dropping listlessly to his lap as he struggled to find his words. "You...you...I...."

Kenny's eyes sobered, becoming sharp and concerned in less than a second as they darted over his friend's countenance. "Oh shit, are you okay Kyle?" He asked, hands reaching out and stroking the bangs back from the redhead's face. Kyle knew he must look awful, pale and trembling and scared. How this would strike his friend he couldn't be sure. A look of horror slowly descended over Kenny's expression, quickly tinged by guilt. "Oh my god, did you remember to take your insulin this morning? I know I was rushing you, and you must've...oh fuck, Kyle, I'm so sorry!" He finished, grabbing Kyle's hands between his own. Not knowing how else to respond, the boy nodded dumbly in response, feeling his own guilt as Kenny fussed over him. It was a lie, but Kyle had no clue what else to say, how to explain what had just happened, or if the blond could even recall any of it. Was it all really in Kyle's mind? Had he forgotten his medicine and just had some sort of medically caused hallucination? It was...possible, but hardly likely. Mrs. Broflovski was over protective to the point that no matter how much of a rush they were in she would never let her son miss his important life saving injections. He couldn't tell Kenny that now, not as the boy helped to fix Kyle's clothes back into some semblance of order before picking him up gingerly. With the redhead protesting every step of the way, Ken resolutely tromped his way out of the forest and back towards their homes, Kyle's residence only just past the tracks that separated the well to do part of town from the slum that the McCormick family were stuck living in. 

When they finally got to his door, and managed to get in past a nearly hysterical over protective mother, Kenny set the redhead on the living room couch as gently as he could. Shelia insisted on hovering over them both, grabbing blankets to keep her precious son warm, not that he was cold, and water to keep him hydrated, not that he was thirsty. Finally in his weakest most wheedling voice, Kyle asked his mom if she would go get his English assignment book from his room upstairs. Without even a second to spare, the squat redhead was racing up to the second floor, eager to be doing anything more to make her bubbelah feel better. 

Certain he had at least a minute and a half alone now, Kyle pulled Kenny down into a crushing hug, accompanied by a searing kiss. Upon finally letting the blond go, Kyle felt both a touch of pride and embarrassment to know he was the cause of the goofy smile plastered on the other boy's lips. 

The rest of the day passed quietly, Kyle camped out on his living room couch while both his mother and his friend fussed over him. He never spoke of what had happened in the clearing, not even to Kenny. In fact, in a short span of time he’d managed to convince himself that it had all been some sort of dream or delusion brought on by a change in his blood sugar. Kyle was a rational boy, and he knew that even in a strange little town like South Park, this sort of thing simply couldn’t be real. All he had to do to remind himself he was right was to look into the gleaming blue eyes of the boy at his side, and he knew things were just fine. Despite his disadvantages and family problems, there was nothing out of the ordinary about Kenny McCormick, of that much Kyle felt certain. 

For a long time he was right.


	2. The Second Time

The second time it happened, Kyle felt his body turn cold, felt every ounce of security and certainty ripped out from beneath him. 

He watched as Kenny folded in upon himself, the gravel around his splayed knees vibrating erratically on the playground's blacktop. Part of the redhead wanted to flee, urged him that running was the only way to save his own life. Some distant part of his mind told him that there was no surviving this, that he would end here without the universe so much as batting an eye as he was wiped from existence. 

A formless cry coming from his gaping mouth, the young man dove forward, hands grasping desperately around his friend's upper arms, nails raking deep angry furrows amongst the fairness of his skin. He shook him helplessly, unable to find even a single scrap of knowledge in his brain that could make this better. Kyle closed his eyes against unwanted tears and buried his face in Kenny's hair. He smelled like sweat and too much dollar store cologne, and something else that was ineffably _him_ , and Kyle breathed in deep. "P-Please," he stammered, struggling to lift the blond's face. "Please..." Words trailed off into stifled sobs, as he pulled the other boy close to him, wrapping his arms around his quivering frame and clutching onto him like a rock in an endless sea. 

As much terror and distress as Kyle was in, Kenny was suffering even more so, his consciousness a cord pulled taunt and beginning to fray from the unimaginable pressure tearing him apart from somewhere deep inside his own being. It overwhelmed him, made him over in its own image, destroyed him and created him anew with each quivering breath pulled into lungs made of the shrivelled leather of some long dead beast. 

He could barely think, barely _be_.

Pressure. So much pressure. 

_what's happening to me?_

_**Escapeescapeescape** _

Mercury flowed in a torrent through his veins, the icy burn eating it's way straight to the core of his being. Every synapse in his body was a supernova. He could feel his bones grinding against each other, pulling apart, forcing their way through muscle and skin. 

Was this what death felt like? Final death? Was this the end after everything he’d been through? It was all consuming, a huge black wave rising up from the pit of his stomach. Deeper. The pit of his soul. The universe was rushing in with thunder and pain, a shockwave as eternity rushed to fill the void in space he left behind. All he could think about was running, fleeing, leaving this useless form and planet in his wake. The need was unbearable, gripping his brain in a vice and squeezing until nothing else remained. 

_**escapeescAPEESCAPEESCAPEESCAPE** _

Pressure, softer this time. Gentle, a warm breeze against writhing skin, a shiver of silk through tangled mats of hair. Apples. Fresh cut grass. Life. Scents filled the blackness behind his tightly shut eyes, each exploding in a firework of colour and taste, bringing with it the faint memory of something familiar, something welcome. 

A sterile white bed in a sterile white room. Chemical smell choking his struggling lungs. His heart and hand held firm, the voice of home whispering desperately in his ear. 

_please don't go_

The words were thick with tears, a fervent prayer in the sarcophageal silence of the hospital ward. The room became a separate universe unto itself, it's only population two boys not yet old enough to deal with the reality that gripped them in apathetic claws. 

_please....don't go....Kenny_

Memory broke apart, reality breaking through towards the surface. Sight wavered back in, summer green filling his hazy vision. Emerald fluttered closed behind a curtain of scarlet, replaced by pale peach. The pressure changed again, deepening, beckoning. Kenny opened his lips to allow the welcome sensation, to let it coach him, claim him. The feeling filled his senses, honey pouring through veins that once burned like the end of time. He breathed it in, grasped it in eager hands, washed himself over in it. Then it was gone, but it left no void in it's wake, only a pleasant tingling that lingered on his lips and in the pit of his stomach. 

"Please don't go, Kenny," an echo from a decade before, from the edge of consciousness before tumbling blindly over. A life line he clung to as the darkness tore through him, trying to pull him back down, swallow him. 

A shuddery gasp left his still open mouth, the sound breaking the stasis that had held him firm. He bent over as pain lanced through his body again, but filled with the unmistakable sensation of rightness this time, a relief that made it more manageable to bear. Skin stitched itself together anew as bone and muscle melted back beneath the scarred flesh, violet-ebony discolouration fading back into healthy pink. His body squeezed, confined, _pushed down_ the unwanted sensations, the shimmering inky awareness that hid in nooks and crannies, wherever it could find purchase within himself. 

His body snapped upright with an almost inhuman contortion, spine angling back further and further as his face tilted up toward the sky. Shrivelled lungs opened wide, pulling in as much air as they could, a hoarse gasping inhalation, thin chest swelling with the sudden influx. 

He was Kenny McCormick. He was alive. That notion felt unfathomably wrong as it skittered across his awareness before it too was pushed aside. Something bigger than either life or death loomed silently in the depths on his consciousness, but it was so far beyond his ability to grasp he could hardly sense its presence. 

Thought and memory floated slowly from the shadows still clinging to the corners of his mind, settling back into their accustomed places as though nothing were wrong. He didn't understand why it was important that he knew his name, why it felt like he hadn't only a moment before. The pain and confusion that had wracked his body and soul mere minutes earlier were growing dim, an ephemeral dream fleeing the dawn of his waking mind. The only remaining tether to what had occurred was the worry and fear paling Kyle's face, sapping his blood and leaving sallow cheeks and a heavily lined forehead in remembrance of what he'd borne witness to. 

"Kenny...?" The redhead asked softly, his eyes wary as they darted about his friend's trembling form. He reached out hesitantly, the foot and a half between them stretching on for miles. Kyle's fingertips ghosted over Kenny's cheek, up to brush the damp clumps of shaggy bangs back from his temples. 

Fine flaxen brows furrowed downwards, an uncertain question in his solemn aquatic eyes. Kyle flinched, tucking his bottom lip beneath his teeth, gaze dropping as he searched for answers in the pattern of his chinos. He went to drop his hand listlessly back to his lap, but Kenny caught him by the wrist, drawing his chin to tilt back upwards in surprise.

The young man's mouth worked open and closed a few times, struggling to find any words to say, what to ask. Finally he put together a sentence from the disconnected fragments floating across his mind. "Why are we on the ground?" His voice was husky, his throat aching as if he'd been screaming for days at the top of his lungs. He couldn't remember anything except for the rhythmic dribbling of the basketball against the pavement. Kyle's smug smile as he flicked his hand expertly between Kenny and the ball, taking possession without any effort. His lungs surging and body protesting in weariness as he chased the cocky redhead down the court. His friend looking back over his shoulder, triumph fading as a frown creased his face, shifting into puzzlement, then...horror? Nothing. Everything. Squeezing. Being ground to powder between infinity and eternity. A gentle pressure. A warm breeze. Worried green eyes studying his face as he sat on the ground, legs tucked back beneath him and shirt falling in tatters down his chest. Kenny plucked at the fabric with a bewildered expression, holding it out to Kyle for an explanation. 

A pause. "You collapsed. I—I, uh, ripped your shirt when I was struggling to get it off to try and listen to your heartbeat, or do CPR or whatever. You collapsed," he echoed again, voice becoming stronger as he reasserted his claim. 

They stared at each other in silence, both avoiding acknowledging the lie strung between them, the breech of trust. Kenny knew Kyle wasn't being honest with him, but he didn't want to accuse the redhead of misleading him. He didn't understand why he wouldn't tell him the truth, but wanted to believe that he had a reason for doing so. Seeing no sign that Kyle was going to offer anything more, Kenny let the boy's hand drop, nodding once to him. "Okay," he spoke with uncharacteristic gravity. "Thanks."

He stood and began to walk away, feet instinctively pointing towards home despite not consciously deciding on a direction. Kyle exhaled a long relieved sigh through his nose, watching his friend leave. The lean length of his back still faintly shimmered in the falling twilight, the places where bone and flesh had started to surge forth from the blond's body now marked only by putrescent lights swirling lazily beneath his skin. 

Kyle slowly worked himself up from the ground, body feeling awkward and heavy. He trailed behind his childhood friend at a careful distance, eyes alert and wary. The basketball lay behind on the black asphalt, forgotten, rolling sluggishly in the breeze. The blond stumbled blindly forward, head hanging low and hair a wild halo billowing chaotically about him. He glanced over his shoulder once as they reached Kyle's house, catching the other teen's emerald gaze a last time for the evening. For a second Kyle thought he might say something, but the moment broke and the blond turned to continue silently down the road. The redhead stood pensively at the foot of his driveway, unable to tear his gaze away until his friend's dwindling figure had crossed the railroad tracks in the distance, his form slowly sinking into the crest of the ground. His entry to the poorer part of town evoked to Kyle the image of a damned soul marching resolutely toward hell. Minutes passed after his shape had disappeared altogether before the tremors began to wrack the young Jew's slender frame. Revulsion that was rooted all the way down into the very depths of his subconscious washed through him until he bent over and vomited the entire contents of his turbulent stomach onto the frost hardened ground. It steamed weakly in the crisp evening air, the chill of the mountains already filling the small town nestled in their icy shadow. He wiped his mouth weakly with the back of one hand before he convinced his aching body to move once more, staggering towards the comfort and safety of his home with firm resolve. A last glance was cast over one shoulder as he crossed the threshold, gazing out at the stars beginning to dot the lavender sky. Kyle shuddered once more, wrenching his mind back from trying to glimpse the vast impossibilities of the cosmos. Red lashes fluttered downwards and squeezed tightly as he shut the door resolutely, on both house and mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone still sticking with this strange little story, I appreciate it a lot. I think ultimately this story is more about the set up of the characters current lives, and I am considering a sequel that delves more into origins and explanations. Not sure yet. Still, I hope you enjoy what I have to offer. Thank you.


	3. The Third Time

He had been pulling away for well over a year now, Kyle thought bitterly as they sat in silence on the abandoned second level deck of Sodosopa. It was clear in the tightness around his eyes, the tense thin line of his lips, that he meant to end it now, once and forever. How Kyle hadn’t seen this coming he didn’t know. Kenny had become withdrawn, his gaze cast down and fixed on the floor, and a deepening scowl had become his default expression. Everyone else had gotten the plentiful hints and disengaged, allowing the distance to stretch between them until their connections sagged and dwindled down to the thinnest hair of nostalgia being the only thing remaining between them. The redhead had refused, his stubborn nature unwilling to let go of the other boy so easily. Words had never been uttered to explain what it was that existed between the two teens, but it was needful and important and something that Kyle would not lose without a fight. The sallow blond beside him seemed to be all out of the strength to struggle back, to find the will to force his friend away with words or actions. Instead he let his silence speak for him, let the blank expression on his face tell his story to the world, to those who still paid attention. 

“Please go,” he whispered in the lavender twilight, hands limp in his lap and hair hanging across his face. “Just...go.” A painful reversal of familiar words, of a desperate plea begun well over a decade ago. 

“No.”

A sigh. A shudder. Something that could almost be called a sob. “Why?”

He shrugged, turning on the cold concrete floor to face the other boy. “I don’t know.” A lie, but all he could bring himself to utter. How could he possibly sum up everything the poor boy meant to him, everything that refused to be named and refused to let go?

Anger bubbled up, painted life onto the boy’s pale skin and woke a fire in his eyes. Kyle smiled in spite of himself, glad to see he could still elicit some form of emotion from the blond. He lifted his hand to trace the line of his face, but was swatted away, Kenny’s expression fierce and unwavering. “Go,” he demanded again, giving the other a firm push. 

When the smaller teen didn’t budge he tried again, and again found his opponent unmoving. When he reached out a third time Kyle dodged between his raised palms, letting Kenny’s momentum bring them close. He softly kissed the bloom of one cheek, thrilled in the telltale shudder that let him know the boy he cared for was still hiding beneath this icy facade. The blond jerked back like he’d been burned, while his arms wrapped around his chest to ward off a phantom chill. The look he gave the other was filled with a loathing too great too be contained. Kyle understood. 

He had seen it in the slump of Kenny’s shoulders, the way his breath would suddenly hitch and his hands spasm wildly in the empty air. He would shout strange phrases and words in his sleep, and now sometimes while awake, and sheepishly apologize and say he was just too tired to form proper sentences. He knew. He had been slowly becoming more and more aware of how frequently he drifted, and how badly he scared those around him, of the way accidents and misfortune would follow in his wake, and the way shadows leaned towards him as he passed. 

The look they exchanged made everything clear, supplied the understanding they shared that words had never been enough to name. Kenny was in a losing battle, and this was the end. He was giving up the fight. His face crumbled into tears, one shaking hand pressing into the hollow of his eye as he let go, as he apologized to the one last person who he hadn’t managed to push away before his fate caught up to him. His only regret was that he couldn’t save the redhead from stumbling into his doom along with him. A small selfish part of his soul was secretly glad to not face the end alone. With one shaky breath the boy felt the last of himself dissolve into the pit of his soul, and gave in to the sensation, unable to continue any longer. 

The sky opened over them, a torrent of stars swirling madly through the darkness to embrace the two boys sitting alone above the roofs of their quiet mountain town. Wind tore at Kyle’s clothes, tossing the boy into the air as carelessly as if he were a child’s toy. He struggled to stand, to pull himself back towards the blond who remained transfixed, the faint wetness on his upturned face glowing against his moon-drenched skin. 

Inky blackness exploded outwards from Kenny’s figure, coating the landscape until nothing remained, no fixed points, no sense of the horizon or perspective, just a vacant field of ebony stretching on without end. The boy sat in the middle of the emptiness, body hunched forward, hands gripping the featureless floor until the tips of his fingers began to pierce into the shadowed surface. Tendons stood out against raging muscles that twitched and flexed as they moved unbidden, some deeper instinct commanding them to action. 

Thoughts, somehow both foreign and familiar, swirled through Kenny’s head, swallowing his ability to think or reason for himself. Something ancient beyond the scope of time existed inside him, hungering for release, for a return to its former power and glory. The part of this entity that was the boy Kenny was small and insignificant compared to the unfathomable whole. How he had fought this long against something so far beyond him was a mystery, but it had never been a battle he could’ve hoped to win inside himself. The otherness was simply too vast to be denied. It was too much a part of who and what he really was. 

_**GO!!**_ a voice thundered from deep inside the blond’s chest, snarling and guttural and totally foreign. The sound scraped against Kyle’s ears, a thousand nails screeching over a million chalkboards. The empty air around Kenny thrummed with an energy that couldn’t be placed, pushing, repelling, forcing, begging the redhead to turn and escape. Somehow even now his friend was still trying to offer him one last chance to flee. 

He refused. Each step forward Kyle took was like plunging into the ocean. Death filled his lungs as he pushed against the screaming wind towards the centre of the chaos, towards the one and only thing he could bring himself to think of. The only thing that could free him from the madness and terror that held his heart in iron fingers. Kenny’s body twisted and writhed against unseen strings, a puppet trying in vain to defy it’s master. The night sky swirled beneath flesh stretched tight over bone and sinew, stars spelling out their secrets in strange patterns before blooming into supernovas, to die and be born again in the teen’s quivering skin. 

The redhead pushed forward relentlessly until he fell on his knees at his friend’s side, tears streaming down his face as he watched helplessly, the horror overtaking the once vibrant and cheerful teen. A eye bloomed along the cresting slope of one bruise coloured shoulder. It stared at Kyle from behind a filmy cataract, and he could see the dark intelligence within it, could sense as it sized him up and found him lacking. It grew, inflated, swelling larger and larger until the bloated orb popped wetly and the hazy ochre iris sunk back into the ruined mass of tumourous flesh that had become Kenny's back. What remained hunched on the ground could no longer be recognized as human, a mass of bone and flesh and limbs, gargantuan and still growing. Reaching forward, Kyle swallowed back the bile that rose in his throat as he placed his hands on the remains of his friend, watched in sick fascination as the flesh parted and moved aside, avoiding his touch. A ray of hope, impossibly weak and tiny within the immense darkness, sparked in Kyle’s heart and he pushed forward again. Stars and galaxies burst to life and faded as his hands descended to find what he knew must still remain within the deepest part of the ruin before him. Fingers found the dried remnants of blonde locks and twisted instinctively amongst the strands, gentle and comforting as he coaxed upwards, as he struggled to raise his friend from the mass drowning him. Slowly a face emerged from within the swirling mound, caressed softly between his shivering hands. Kyle could no longer tell where his own body ended and Kenny’s began, could feel his own flesh being explored, absorbed, drawn in to the horror before him. The former boy stared up sightlessly at him, his normally blue eyes stretched wide, the irises turned a jaundiced yellow and seeping into the sclera like a toxin. 

A chasm filled with teeth like sharped stakes opened below those poison eyes, and out poured a rush of incomprehensible sound mixed with the blond's agonized cries, pentrating to vibrate in the centre of Kyle's brain. Warm wetness clogged his ears and began to flow in sluggish rivulets down his cheeks as he pressed his palms against his temples like he could somehow hold his skull together with nothing but his own two hands. 

Kenny’s face began to sink back into the star clad mass of his body, and with a cold certainty Kyle knew that if he let him disappear now he would never find him again. Steeling himself, the redhead dove forwards, letting the cacophony assault him as he reached for the blond and drew him near, resolving to never let go again, no matter the cost. His own flesh writhed as massive tentacles curled around him, seeming to comply with his desire for closeness, squeezing and rending, and ready to devour his insignificant and tiny existence completely. 

With a broken cry Kyle looked at the creature that contorted itself to fill the entire world around him, his eyes taking in the utter madness and impossibility contained within this one being. He couldn’t even grasp the full image of what his friend had become, his mind staggering back from it’s frightening reality. A million different emotions tore at the fraying edges of his consciousness, but in his heart one feeling bloomed pure and untouched by this cosmic monstrosity; Pity. Perhaps it was uncharitable, perhaps he should have been able to summon a more noble emotion in connection to his friend, but he truly pitied the poor boy at the centre of this, the boy who deserved so much better than the world had ever given him. He pitied the one who had tried so hard to be a good person, a responsible person, someone worth loving. And Kyle did. He loved Kenny McCormick with his whole heart, and he knew as he cradled what little remained of the boy to his chest that he always had and always would, even as he was dying at the mercy of what that boy had become. A smile crossed his face and he leaned forward. 

His tongue caught on the jagged fangs that crowded the ruined boy's jaw, but he refused to stop. The tang of his own blood filled his senses as he explored Kenny's mouth; behind it lay bitterness, fermentation, and a million other things too horrible to be named. He could taste time in Kenny's kiss, could feel the texture of the galaxy. Everything both vile and sweet unfurled before him as his lips slotted with the other teen’s, as they fit together like they had been torn from the same cloth. Kyle kissed Kenny, kissed the boy he loved more than his own life, and knew he was ready to meet his end, so long as he could be at the other boy’s side forever. 

Thought and reason and space and eternity all stopped in the wake of their joining, all existence shuddering at the sudden sensation that wormed its way deeper and deeper, down into the very heart and mind of the creature. Old Ones knew no such thing as love, as kindness, as the simple happiness that came from being with the person you cared for the most. They had no need of such things, and yet, it did. This was something new, something unexpected, and it had been such a terribly long time since it had encountered something yet unknown. It found itself wanting, needing this feeling, to understand it and keep it, make it its own. And it could, a spark in the swirling emptiness whispered faintly, it could, and it was so, so _easy_.

Kyle pulled back slowly, fingers gone numb trailing down from the other boy’s hair to rest on firm shoulders, to sink into the fabric of his ratty old hoodie and dig furrows into the skin beneath. Kenny smiled back at him, eyes dark and deep as the ocean staring at him like Kyle had hung the moon and the stars in the sky. And perhaps he had in a way, he thought dimly as his gaze travelled upwards to the heavens above them, the first few constellations beginning to take the stage amongst lavender hues. The universe and everything in it felt new, and yet he also knew it was exactly the same as before, unchanged and unchanging despite the titanic event that had just threatened the whole of existence. Or perhaps it had just been him, and him alone, who had borne witness to the near end of the universe, while everywhere else life had gone on as usual. Kenny gave him a small nod, as if to say that everything he thought and imagined was true, and also none of it at all. It felt right. He felt right. With the taller boy in his arms it felt as if nothing could ever be wrong again, and if somehow it did....well, Kyle had faced down the will of an Old One and forced it to submit, if only by surrendering himself completely. He was sure that if something else came up, he would find a way to face it too. And he would never have to face it alone again. 

Chuckling under his breath, the blond leaned forward and claimed the lips of his friend and lover, melting slowly against him, though metaphorically this time. Kyle let his eyes flutter closed as they shifted together, bodies flush and hands claiming every inch of each other. 

There would be no fourth time. 

Perhaps.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is the end of the main body of this work. I have a rough idea for a concept that goes further to explore the origins of how Kenny came to be, and more about his dual sided existence. In this end this story was more about Kenny becoming aware of his shared body, and Kyle accepting that loving Kenny meant loving all of him, meant being willing to give himself over to both. What this ultimately means for them, well, like I said, I have a rough idea of what happens to them next. We shall see. Thank you so much for reading, for your likes, and for each and every comment. I treasure them dearly.


	4. Time After Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After the previous chapters of angst and body horror, please enjoy a pleasant little interlude between my two favourite lovebirds. Thanks to everyone who has read my story, and even more so to those who commented. My deepest appreciation, as always. Enjoy!

The fourth time it happened, Kyle was caught somewhat off guard.

The fifth time it happened, Kyle dealt with it before going back to his studies. 

The sixth time it happened he managed it rather admirably. 

By the seventh time it happened, it was really just a part of their daily routine. 

It wasn’t all bad, not really. 

“Ugh,” Kyle moaned from deep within his nest of blankets “S’too briiiight.” The morning sun was being its usual offensive self, shining in to wake the young man. What made things all the worse was the fact he had stayed up far too late last night, and for once he had nowhere he had to be that morning. Why did the sun have to try and ruin one of his few mornings off?

“Y’left the curtain open las’night,” Kenny replied sleepily from his side, the blond wrapped around his frame as if he were a garment meant to be worn. It was cute the way his voice grew thicker, the way the drawl he’d adopted from his mother became more pronounced when his mind wasn’t fully alert yet for the day. 

The redhead grunted sourly, not impressed that his lover felt the need to remind him that this was entirely his own fault, even despite his tones sounding like warm honey. “Close the curtain,” Kyle returned, hoping that Kenny would grant him this small favour, out of appreciation for the night before at the very least. After all, Kyle internally reasoned, he really should have spent the evening studying history rather than anatomy. 

“Comfy,” the blonde whined in protest, burying his nose against the back of Kyle’s neck, his lips pecking softly at the lightly freckled skin. 

“Close. The curtains.” Kyle enunciated the words carefully, his tone clear that he wasn’t going to accept a refusal. Grumbling only slightly, the blond began to shift against him, preparing to toss back their comforter and head over to shut the blinds against the obtrusive morning sun. Kyle clamped down firmly on Kenny’s forearm, still currently wrapped around his midsection. One blue eye opened and peered over the redhead’s shoulder curiously. 

“Uh, Ky?” He questioned lightly, giving a half hearted tug against the other man’s grip. “Kinda gonna need that if you want me to close...”

Kyle gave a sharp wrench, pulling Kenny in close against him as he snuggled down into the fluffy pillow beneath his head. “M’Comfy too,” he breathed out deeply. “N’warm. So warm.”

“‘S’not like I wanna move either,”

“Then don’t.”

“Uh, that’s not exactly—“

“Close the curtain. Stay in bed.” Kyle said in perfectly measured tones before opening one eye and casting a nuanced glance over his shoulder at his boyfriend. Even half asleep the other man couldn’t miss the weighted meaning behind that look. 

He felt more than heard Kenny’s surprised inhale before the blond relaxed against him, a whisper of breath leaking slowly from his parted lips. A shudder. His breathing quickened in pace with his heart. Then...nothing special. Everything was fine, perfectly under control. Seconds later the blankets began to rise and shuffle until a long black tentacle poked its way from under the covers, slithering down along the floor towards the window. It wobbled slightly, raising up like a snake, before it began to paw blindly at the curtains, batting at the pieces of fabric like a curious kitten. Eventually the rays of sun faded behind the thick panels and the tentacle shrank back towards the bed, disappearing beneath the sheets now that it’s task was complete. 

“Thank you,” Kyle mumbled with a small smile, glad to be rid of the morning sun without also having to give up the warm embrace of his boyfriend’s arms. 

“S’no prob,” came the muffled reply, feeling the words shaped by lips pressed against the nape of his neck, each syllable sending pleasant shudders along the length of his spine. 

Yes, Kyle thought lazily as he felt Kenny slip back into sleep behind him, there were definite upsides to dating an eldritch God monster. Even if there wasn’t, falling back asleep on a Friday morning in the warm arms of Kenny McCormick was enough to make him put in the effort regardless.

**Author's Note:**

> Next chapter will be along soon. Thanks for reading!


End file.
